Content:

(RoRoRo, PCPC, B, C, RH, LLL, VVV, S, NNN, A, D, MM) Very strong Romantic worldview that’s somewhat politically correct with some revisionist history with a moral message against slavery with some light Christian references that, however, turns into a revenge-filled bloodbath that becomes rather merciless; at least 111 obscenities (many “f,” “s,” “h,” and “d” words), 30 strong profanities (27 GDs), and four light profanities, plus many “n” words; very strong violence includes blood spurts high like lava from gunshots, one on one gunfights, sniper shoots father in front of son, slaves whipped, slave threatened with castration, man hung upside down to torture, scars on backs of slaves, man with dynamite explodes when gunshot hits him, people shot point blank, slaves fight and slave owner orders winning fighter to gouge out other man’s eyes and bash skull with a hammer (quick shot shows the gouged-out eyes but hammer blow not shown), slave attacked and eaten by dogs but camera looks away through most of it, woman mercilessly gunned down, wagon explodes, and two brutal gunfights at end, with the first one going on for a long time as numerous people are shot and one man keeps getting shot in leg and other parts of his body plus people used as human shields against gunfire with blood splattering walls of a house; a couple light references to sex (mostly snide ones); full frontal male nudity as man hangs upside down and off screen he’s threatened with castration, plus quick shot of upper female nudity when a female slave is pulled out of a “hot box”; alcohol use; smoking cigars and cheroots; and, slavery but rebuked, brutality not always rebuked, vengeance and revenge, humiliation, cruelty not always rebuked, one slave is very obsequious and conniving, slave owner forces male slaves to fight to the death, deception.

Summary:

DJANGO UNCHAINED, a new western from Quentin Tarantino, is about a freed black slave who gets help from a German bounty hunter in finding his wife, who was sold separately by their former owners. DJANGO UNCHAINED has some very well-crafted moments, but there’s abundant foul language, the “n” word is frequently used, and the movie ends in a bloody bloodbath that’s abhorrently brutal.

Review:

DJANGO UNCHAINED, a new western from Quentin Tarantino, has some of the most violent scenes ever filmed. The graphic shootings in the earlier part of the movie are increased exponentially in the movie’s final bloody shootouts at the end. The movie also contains abundant gratuitous foul language, as well as an excessive use of racial epithets.

Set two years before the Civil War, the story follows the epic travels of a newly freed slave named Django. Django travels across the country on horseback with the man who freed him, Dr. King Schultz. Schultz is a bounty hunter and needs Django to help him identify a trio of murderous brothers wanted by the law. They soon track down and kill the brothers. Dhango seems to show a particular affinity for the job of tracking down evil white folks and killing them.

After killing the three brothers, Schultz proposes to Django that they team up for the winter as bounty hunters. Django agrees, if Schultz will help him search for his wife, Broomhilda, who was sold separately by their former slave owners because they had tried to escape together. Schultz agrees, because he believes fate led them together because Django’s wife was named by a German slave owner. Also, Schultz considers the idea of slavery as particularly barbaric, even though, as a bounty hunter, he shows no mercy to the criminals he’s chasing. After all, Schultz reasons, the men they chase are wanted dead or alive.

After the winter, Schultz and Django learn that Hildy was sold to Candieland, a notorious slave plantation run by a vicious slave owner named Calvin Candie. Candie makes bets on male slaves he owns who are forced to compete in brutal fights to the death. Django and Schultz try to trick Candie into selling them Hildy and one of his black fighters. However, Candie’s elderly, obsequious house slave, Stephen, is very suspicious about their motives. Eventually, a bloodbath ensues.

The first two acts of DJANGO UNCHAINED hold the audience’s attention, but contain some graphic gun deaths and nearly constant crude language. When people are shot, for example, blood erupts from their bodies like a volcano spewing lava. The stylized violence becomes over-the-top and super-offensive during the third act in a protracted, frenetic shootout. After the shootout, Django is captured and brutalized. Then, when he escapes again, he mercilessly murders the female slave owner even though she physically didn’t take part in the abuse he suffers.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is also marred by a gratuitous, excessive use of the “n” word. Also, although the plot contains one evil black man, Steven, and one “good” white man, Schultz, the story and characters are a bizarre, contradictory combination of rampant racism and an attack on the evils of slavery. MOVIEGUIDE® could find no evidence of slave owners in the South forcing black slaves to fight to the death. That doesn’t mean it didn’t occur, of course, but there’s already too much revisionist history on the issue of slavery, much of which is done just to make the United States and the South seem as evil as possible.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is shot, edited, and photographed very well. As usual, Tarantino’s colorful dialogue is intriguing. However, the amount of brutality, violence, and crude language in DJANGO UNCHAINED is gratuitous and abhorrent. It detracts from any enjoyment viewers might derive from the rest of the movie. Discerning, media-wise moviegoers will find DJANGO UNCHAINED too offensive, disgusting and demeaning.

In Brief:

DJANGO UNCHAINED, a new western from Quentin Tarantino, has some of the most violent scenes ever filmed. Dr. Schultz, a German bounty hunter in Texas, frees a slave called Django. Schults wants Django to identify three murderous slave overseers he’s tracking. After they accomplish this goal, Schultz offer to help Django find his wife, Hildy, if Django will help him kill wanted men during the winter. Schultz and Django learn that Hildy was sold to Candieland, a notorious slave plantation run by a vicious slave owner named Calvin Candie. Candie makes bets on male slaves who are forced to compete in brutal fights to the death. Django and Schultz try to trick Candie into selling them Hildy and one of his black fighters. However, Candie’s elderly, obsequious house slave is very suspicious about their motives. Eventually, a bloodbath ensues.